The Dabangg and the Dhoble

Who on earth (and in his right mind) would take on the Dabangg star, Tiger and Sher Khan himself? Well, if rumours are to be believed Inspector Dhoble has the dubious distinction.

>> Who on earth (and in his right mind) would take on the Dabangg star, Tiger and Sher Khan himself? Well, if rumours are to be believed Inspector Dhoble has the dubious distinction.

Apparently, on Saturday night when his moral police went in to overdrive, one of the places he raided was Royalty, Sohail Khan’s night club in Bandra, (which had earlier belonged to Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra) and a few words were exchanged between the inspector and Mr Dabangg himself.

What can one say about the cop who’s unleashed a Twitter tsunami of wisecracks? Incidentally, we broke up his name to see what we could spell and came up with some interesting words: bled, led, bold, hold, old, bed, bode, lode dole.. Can readers make any more? And next exercise: use them in sentences to describe him.

Salman Khan

ACP Vasant Dhoble

Mumbai Boy at Harvard!>> Many years ago, we recall writing a cover story for a leading weekend supplement that began with a description of two Indian brothers who sat in two different offices in Manhattan and more or less controlled the world (in a manner of speaking). The brothers happened to be Arshad and Fareed Zakaria, who was respectively executive vice president of Merrill Lynch & Co and president, and later chairman, of its Global Markets and Investment Banking Group and his brother — the editor of Newsweek International. And though some margin could be allowed for exaggeration and Mumbai loyalty, the description was not entirely inaccurate.

Fareed Zakaria

Since then the brothers have gone on to other things, Arshad left Merryl Lynch (perhaps it was an opportune move — given the state of American banks) and Fareed moved from Newsweek to Time as its contributing editor and of course, appears on the highly lauded GPS with Fareed Zakaria on CNN. (Somewhere along the way, he picked up a Padma Bhushan for his achievements). And last fortnight, Rafeeq and Fatima’s brilliant son added another feather to his cap when he delivered the Harvard 2012 Commencement speech (a measure of how significant this is, is that other speakers have included Presidents and Nobel laureates) a fortnight ago. Speaking before a packed hall filled with graduates, alumni, parents, family, and friends, Zakaria struck a stridently optimistic note saying, “The world we live in is, first of all, at peace — profoundly at peace. You would have to go back hundreds of years to find a similar period of great power peace.” And going on to give historical data to prove how other issues like climate change, security and the economic crisis are also magnified. However, in a speech full of humour, wit and erudition Zakaria’s most endearing words were when he urged students to acknowledge their parents love for them. “You cannot possibly understand the love that your parents have for you until you have children of your own. On this day of all days, give them a hug, and tell them that you love them.”

Country’s pride, Goa’s best>> OK. So we’re back from Goa and safely ensconced in our home in Mumbai, but we can’t help crowing about the fact that on the way to the airport we dropped in to the Taj Village’s Caravella restaurant and ate a meal prepared by the legendary Chef Cruz Urbano Do Rego, who has dazzled guests from far and wide with his spectacular Goan fare for more than four decades.

Chef Cruz Urbano Do Rego

Named consultant chef for Goan cuisine Taj group, Chef Rego is an institution, which is why the privilege of eating a meal prepared by his own hands is such a treat. We ate his celebrated clams, his prawns in mango gravy, his pomfret curry and his vindaloo parathas while the turbulent waves at Aguada beach portended a heavy monsoon. Sandeep Gore, the Taj Holiday Village’s charming assistant F&B manager says that amongst those who have licked their fingers at Chef Rego’s table are the Shah of Iran, George Bush, King Hussain of Jordan, Prince Philip of England, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Beatle George Harrison. We like!

Braking News>> Given how dramatically the news channels are spinning the proposed hike in diesel cars we feel it would be apt if the update were presented as ‘Braking News’. And given the state of our economy, perhaps, updates on that too could be termed ‘Braking news’. After all, what else can we do but tighten our belts and weather the bumpy ride ahead?

Talented Fashionista>> We ran in to young Surily Goel the other day at Wasabi and were delighted to learn that one of Mumbai’s most talented young designers plans to return to her characteristic Boho, Goa hippy prints, and tribal wear roots next year. “Right now I’m doing a lot of ethnic wear as there’s a whole spate of big weddings,” she told us. “And also busy with my film Ishq in Paris, which is looking at a September release this year.” Having branched out in to styling for Bollywood (Salam Namaste, Janeman, Ta Ra Rum Pum, Blue, and Chance pe dance), Surily says that designing accounts for 60 per cent and styling 40 per cent of her work.

Surily Goel

“I get bored easily and designing is a pretty isolated business, so I enjoy the change of working on films or TV shows (she has styled Hrithik’s Just Dance and two shows for Preity Zinta.) Being vicariously interested in the world of fashion, we picked Surily’s brains for some gyaan. “Manish Malhotra is the best stylist in India,” she said, “As he set the ball rolling. In fact today you have so many great film stylists like Anaita, Niharika,” she said adding, “Film scripts are so interesting these days, movies like Dirty Picture give you so much scope for creativity.” And who’s the most stylish actor/actress today? “Amongst the men, I think it’s Arjun, Rampal and amongst the girls Deepika’s looking great and Sonam carries off couture so well.” So there you have it. A bit of fashion fix right here right now.

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